Christmas! Ham! Christmas Ham !

No big meals cooked in my kitchen this Christmas. Dinner on the 25th was at Mums, as usual. However, we DID have guests on the 27th , so it was into the kitchen for some buffet food. Aside from the usual nibbles, I was particularly proud of my Baked Christmas Ham With Sugar and Mustard Crust. It tastes amazing and I strongly recommend you try it ...
I soaked the ham for two days in regularly changed water, to leach the salt out (didn't do that one year and it was well, salty) . Boiling the ham next in a stock base of celery, onions, carrots and bay leaves. In the meantime, I prepared the glaze by mixing together two teaspoons of dijon and english mustard, with 25g of butter and 300g of dark muscovado sugar, ground cloves, ground ginger and ground cinnamon (note: next time I'm doubling up the mustard). The recipe calls for 20-odd cloves, but I find that the taste becomes too medicinal, so lay off the cloves unless you're really fond of them.
Pre-heated oven, 200 degrees, smear the paste over the ham  and throw it in, making sure to baste at least twice. The glaze is REALLY sticky and goes like a treacle, but its SO worth it.
After about 20 minutes, one last baste and then back in for ten. Finally remove the ham and slowly baste as it cools, it gets very very sticky but hardens to an impressive glaze. (make sure you wash the pan/bowl right there and then otherwise you'll come back to something like concrete in the morning, trust me...)
The casing of sugar and mustard is crisp and tasty, it seeps into the meat and leave a delicious aftertaste...just right for Christmas ... it's so good that one of my fans stated that the chutney it was served with actually detracted from the taste - so there you go...!

Jamie roools!

So, watching Jamie's Christmas last night and off he goes making his 2002 squash and chestnut soup. "Mmmm" thinks I, even though I'd just polished off one of Pizza Italia's 16" Thin and Crispy ham, mushroom, double pepperoni and pineapple pizzas...
Mrs. Fod has been in a classroom all day, so I guessing she'd like something when she gets in that isn't "naughty". So off I go ... crush two tablespooons of coriander seeds with two hot dried chillies, rub them all over two massive halved butternut squashes and cover with olive oil before bunging in the oven at 200 degrees. Meanwhile, fry pre-cooked chestnuts, a large onion, pancetta and sage leaves in oil, then bung all that into a big pan, scoop out the squash (should be soft after about 25 minutes) , add that to the pan, cover with chicken stock and bring to the boil. He did a half and half , to get a "rustic" thickness to the soup, I couldn't be bothered, just whizzed it with the whizzer until it was all smooth and served... (as St. Jamie would say: "..luverly jubbly...") .. It was really nice  and didn't need any seasoning either...

Rice n Bitz!

Many moons ago, B & J (best friends and Best Man) used to be skint, like I was. This was 'cos our mortgages were crippling us (thanks, Reagan and Thatcher) . We'd usually be stuck at home on our few weeekends off. I'd ring him or he'd ring me and we'd discuss the content of our fridges. Then it would be over to each others house, carrying whatever we had, plus some home brew or a loose can of Skol or Carling  (!) and we'd have a "Rice and Bitz" night. Chuck everything in a pan, bang on a VHS tape (usually Arnie) and drink 'till you fall over.....
WELL, we're all a bit more sophisticated these days, B&J live in France and are non-meat eaters, and I like cooking for them when they return to the "Old Country" ;-) .
How to reconcile the two? Easy! Rice and Bitz! In fact, a seafood risotto in the style of a Paella (but without Chorizo or Chicken, you see?). I had a MASSIVE piece of CostCo monkfish (note to self, get fishmonger to fillet it in future) and some prawns, cod and mussels. Chopped onions and celery into a paella pan with olive oil and a little garlic. Soften, add risotto rice for a few minutes until coated in oil, then pour in stock (I added a little saffron as well; expensive, but it adds something, I find) . I used Knorr stock pot vegetable stock and a fish stock, along with 250ml of a cheeky little white wine lurking around the kitchen (unusual, wine doesn't live very long in the DP kitchen!).
Once all the liquid was absorbed, in went the fish, some peas, some bell peppers, hot piquante peppers and pickled roasted red peppers (from a jar) (nomnomnom). Whilst all that was cooking, I put the rest of the wine in a saucepan, threw in the cleaned and trimmed mussels, banged on a lid and steamed them until they opened. Mussels drained and placed on top of the rice/fish combo, (VERY "rustic"), to the table still in the paella pan, three big spoons and off we went. Another DP success, and we only realised we'd "just" had "rice and bitz" about halfway through! Sometimes, its the simple stuff that makes it all worthwhile.....

The Pumpkin King!

So, three massive pumpkin lanterns later, I'm left with a good two and a half pounds of flesh ... what to do? I know, use that chicken stock I made from Sunday's roast and make Lantern Soup http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/lanternsouppumpkinan_8073 . Sage from the garden, a left over sweet potato and around 2/3rds of the pumpkin flesh , banged in a BIG pan and simmered for about half an hour until all squishy. A quick whiz with the handheld whizzer and a golden dark yellow soup that is (on account of the sage) warming and tasty. Had some for lunch today, the tastes have begun to mix nicely and it was fantastic!

..a little snack...

I'm bored of the basics and always trying to jazz stuff up. Take my lunch today, mackerel in tomato sauce on toast...so far so boring... but I slapped some English mustard on the toast, then some of the Spanish chillies from the previous meal, a grind of black pepper, and, < hola! > something a little spicy but really tasty ... it really doesn't take much ... :-)

D & C come for dinner

Well I invited D & C over for a meal last night and this is what we had:

Starter (washed down with a nice Prosecco. A medley of Spanish ham, Fuet sausage and cheese from Lunya, complemeted by pickled chillies, orange jelly and pickled red onion. The cheese was really nice with the orange jelly and individually, the meats and the pickles were really tasty, but I think it was a bit much for a starter, next time I'll drop the smellier cheese and perhaps make the portions a little smaller.

Main course (ably lubricated with Wolf Blass Yellow Label Cabernet Sauvignon): Parma Ham wrapped Chicken Breasts stuffed with roasted red pepper and pickled hot green chillies on a saffron, spinach and basil Risotto . This was fantastic. The tastes really came out. I adapted the recipe from a mixture of Jamie Oliver and BBC Good Food , throwing in the chillies to give a bit of bite. JO says that a risotto should be like a "...hug from your mum..." , well, chucking in a knob of butter just before serving gave it a velvety softness that felt like a hug to me ;-) !

Dessert : I had had a go at making Gordon Ramsay's Blackberry Pannacotta with Madeleines , but the Madeleines were a disaster! Top Tip? DON'T buy silicone moulds... It was good job that I practised the day before, so I dropped them from the recipe and just used the pannacotta and the blackberries, but I threw in a blackberry coulis, made from boiling about 250g of blackberries with 50g of caster sugar, then dropping in a little vanilla extract and chilling before serving. You know what? No-one noticed the madeleines were missing - it was just enough.

After that lot, the evening degenerated into its usual puddled drunkeness; a great night in... ;-) 

What a great idea!

... I've been cooking for friends for years and often find myself stumped to remember a nice dish or combination that worked well. Then today, someone suggested that keep a blog...and here it is!